ILOILO CITY — The City Health Office (CHO) is pushing for all public and private establishments to set up breastfeeding stations to support the exclusive breastfeeding campaign of the government.
Councilor Candice Magdalane Tupas, a doctor by profession and chair of the committee on health of the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) on Tuesday said she would be calling for another meeting with stakeholders to address issues on implementation and compliance to the ordinance, especially by government institutions.
Tupas has been working on the amendment of the city’s Breastfeeding Council. Aside from addressing the issue on compliance, she cited the importance of the city engineer’s office in requiring newly-built buildings to establish their lactating room.
CHO head Dr. Bernard Caspe, in an interview on Wednesday, said that requiring offices to establish a lactating room was “one way to support the exclusive breastfeeding movement.”
Caspe said breast milk was “superior” than formula milk because it had nutrients and enzymes that could fight infection. Also, breastfeeding prevented the possibility of the child having diarrhea.
He explained that one hindrance to the campaign was the lack of a breastfeeding room, especially for working mothers.
Caspe said that the city government had entered into an agreement with malls and hospitals for the establishment of a lactation station.
Already, major malls and hospitals have their own breastfeeding stations.
He added that the Department of Health and the CHO jointly conduct a monitoring of their compliance to the ordinance.
The failure to comply with the ordinance would mean a fine of PHP4,000 on first offense, PHP5,000 on second offense, and PHP5,000 and five day imprisonment on the third offense.
Republic Act 10028 also known as the Expanded Breastfeeding Promotion Act of 2009 promotes breastfeeding.
Exclusive breastfeeding is necessary from birth up to six months while continued breastfeeding is promoted for the next 550 days covering six to 24 months with timely and age appropriate introduction of complementary foods.
DOH data showed 50.36 percent exclusive breastfeeding rate in Western Visayas and 24 percent in Iloilo City. (Perla Lena/PNA)
